The Greenhouse

At Dulwich College (Singapore) we are excited to announce that work has started on the building of The Greenhouse. This seven-storey state-of-the-art structure will provide additional creative learning spaces, including a 400-seat multi-purpose auditorium, a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) workshop to accommodate our SE21 initiative (STEAM and Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century), a professional teaching kitchen, film and media suites, three additional black box theatres, IT rooms, another gymnasium, tennis courts and a sports science laboratory. It will also include a vast two-storey IB library, workspaces, study rooms and social areas for our pre-university students.

Sustainability and global citizenship is embedded across our whole organisation. Our goal is to encourage our communities to make informed choices, take inspired action and create positive impact on a personal, group and global level. As part of our journey towards a sustainable future, we made the commitment to make our new building at Dulwich both Green Mark Platinum certified (the highest sustainable construction certification), and a net-zero energy building. Through this commitment we not only set the standard for our existing and future schools, but we also hope to inspire other education groups to make similar commitments for a sustainable future. Everything, from its architectural design, construction materials and function, has sustainability and global citizenship permeating through it.

The biggest challenge was achieving a net-zero building with the limited space on campus to install renewable energy sources. Through working with sustainable design and architecture experts, we managed to find innovative ways to maximise our renewable energy production. On the building itself, the architects have designed an eco-envelope to surround the building to maximise our total solar panel area. Additionally, by installing more solar panels across our entire campus, we have maximised the amount of renewable energy we are able to produce on site. However, despite maximising our renewable energy output, we still had to reduce the energy usage of the building in order to match the amount of energy the solar panels are able to produce and reach net-zero.

To minimise energy usage, we had to implement numerous energy saving technologies and designs. On top of installing efficient lighting systems, we wanted to reduce the need for artificial lighting by maximising natural lighting. Through installing light shafts that run across the top floor of the building and putting in a central atrium that runs through the centre of the building, light is able to permeate the entire building. The atrium also provides natural ventilation to keep the building cool and reduce the need for air conditioning systems. We are also able to drastically increase our energy efficiency by using passive cooling technologies, energy-saving chiller systems and environmental sensors linked to a smart building management system. All of these innovations work together to significantly reduce the energy usage of the building and have allowed us to achieve net-zero. To reduce our water usage, we are installing a rain-water harvesting system to collect rain water and recycle it for irrigation. We are also committing to use sustainable building materials, such as mixed low-carbon concrete and recycled wood or plastic for interior design and furniture to reduce our waste and carbon footprint in the process.

Most importantly, to engage our students and community with sustainability, we will be including several sustainable initiatives in this build. The roof of the building will have a full edible forest based on woodland ecosystems for our students to engage in foraging for fruits to expose them to a more natural form of food production, instead of the more commonly seen farmed foods. To deal with any food waste from the edible forest, a vermi-composter and an insect farm will be incorporated into the roof garden where we will be breeding black soldier flies. The larva from the black soldier flies will then be fed to the fish in the pond, where the water is also used to irrigate the forest, creating a circular ecosystem on the roof for our students to engage with.

For further engagement with the building, we have also included several new innovations in the sustainability field such as energy generating floor tiles and energy generating gym equipment. The floor tiles will be linked to a screen in the lobby of the building and will show the amount of energy that is produced when students walk across them.

For our cooking classes and CCAs we have put in a working kitchen where we will have an on-site hydroponic farm to grow several different plants and herbs for students to harvest and experiment with in making plant based meals. We will even have a mushroom chamber to grow and use mushrooms as the base for plant based meats!

We hope that The Greenhouse will expose our students to the many exciting developments and opportunities in the sustainability field, no matter what area of interest they have. We are not only teaching our students about global issues, but also making our students aware of the local and global efforts being made to solve them. By engaging our students early with these global issues and solutions, we hope to provide the necessary skills for them to thrive in a forever changing world and better understand their place and purpose on this planet.